Commercial property energy nightmare

jackof1trade

Hi all. 

I’m newly self employed and I’ve just bought a small workshop to work in. A couple of days after completion I was called by a lady from 
Select Energy who said she would find me a good electricity deal- it wasn’t that great compared to my home tariff, but when I put this to her she told me that business energy was more expensive than residential. This was news to me but on that basis I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead. 

After the call I did some checking and found the deal wasn’t great so I did my own comparison through Uswitch and signed up with a better deal, thinking I could cancel the first one under the 14 day cooling off period. 

So I contacted the energy provider that Select Energy found me - Yorkshire Gas and Power (read the reviews on Google my Business!) and told them I wanted to cancel within the 14 day cooling off period, only to be told there isn’t one with business contracts. Unfortunately this is correct so I have 2 suppliers who are going to clash anytime soon. I feel stupid and can’t sleep as I feel YGP are going to really sting me for my mistake. Anyone got any advice please? Thank you.

QrizB

jackof1trade said:

Anyone got any advice please? Thank you.

The first bit of advice is not to have anything to do with cold callers. The nice "lady from Select Energy" has stitched you up like a kipper.

The second you already know; business energy tariffs aren't covered by consumer protection laws since businesses are meant to be able to stand on their own feet in the big bad world.

The third? Decide which of your two contracts you want to keep, then buy yourself out of the other one. It's unlikely to be cheap but it's the only option.

Gerry1

Register with the TPS so that you know any more cold calls are scams.

jackof1trade

QrizB said:

jackof1trade said:

Anyone got any advice please? Thank you.

The first bit of advice is not to have anything to do with cold callers. The nice "lady from Select Energy" has stitched you up like a kipper.

The second you already know; business energy tariffs aren't covered by consumer protection laws since businesses are meant to be able to stand on their own feet in the big bad world.

The third? Decide which of your two contracts you want to keep, then buy yourself out of the other one. It's unlikely to be cheap but it's the only option.

Thank you. Do you think I have a case for mis-selling? She told me that it was expensive because unit prices are higher for businesses, but when I did a Google search afterwards this isn’t true?

victor2

jackof1trade said:

QrizB said:

jackof1trade said:

Anyone got any advice please? Thank you.

The first bit of advice is not to have anything to do with cold callers. The nice "lady from Select Energy" has stitched you up like a kipper.

The second you already know; business energy tariffs aren't covered by consumer protection laws since businesses are meant to be able to stand on their own feet in the big bad world.

The third? Decide which of your two contracts you want to keep, then buy yourself out of the other one. It's unlikely to be cheap but it's the only option.

Thank you. Do you think I have a case for mis-selling? She told me that it was expensive because unit prices are higher for businesses, but when I did a Google search afterwards this isn’t true?

VAT is higher for businesses (20% vs 5%), so in a way, you could argue she was right.

Robin9

@jackoftrade   What prices have you been quoted ?   

jackof1trade

YPG quoted 60p per day and 40p per KW. EDF quoted 25p per day and 32p per KW

Robin9

jackof1trade said:

YPG quoted 60p per day and 40p per KW. EDF quoted 25p per day and 32p per KW

Both are good - I've been quoted for out of contract  57.32 p/ kWH and 0.75 p/day

What does your contract say about consumption and number of years ?

jackof1trade

Not seen a contract so I don’t know- she basically blinded me with figures. I’m bribing it tbh.. I think this phone call is going to leave me broke, it doesn’t seem fair.

jackof1trade

*bricking not bribing

QrizB

jackof1trade said:

QrizB said:

jackof1trade said:

Anyone got any advice please? Thank you.

The first bit of advice is not to have anything to do with cold callers. The nice "lady from Select Energy" has stitched you up like a kipper.

The second you already know; business energy tariffs aren't covered by consumer protection laws since businesses are meant to be able to stand on their own feet in the big bad world.

The third? Decide which of your two contracts you want to keep, then buy yourself out of the other one. It's unlikely to be cheap but it's the only option.

Thank you. Do you think I have a case for mis-selling? She told me that it was expensive because unit prices are higher for businesses, but when I did a Google search afterwards this isn’t true?

I can't comment on mis-selling but, as the Ofgem cap doesn't apply to business tariffs, at the moment she's correct; business tariffs *are* more expensive than domestic ones. Robin9 has given you an example of one.